Bed Bath & Beyond Hits Multiyear Low After Earnings
Bed Bath & Beyond reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results late Thursday, and shares were down sharply in Friday's premarket.
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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed Thursday, and as a result the stock hit a multiyear low. In fact, shares have not been at this level in seven years.
The company said that it had $0.58 in earnings per share (EPS) and $2.74 billion in revenue. That compared with Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $0.66 in EPS and $2.79 billion in revenue.
Comparable sales in the quarter fell by roughly 2.0%, compared with a decrease of about 0.5% in last year’s fiscal first quarter. Comparable sales from customer-facing digital channels continued to have strong growth in excess of 20%, while comparable sales from stores declined in the mid-single-digit percentage range during the fiscal 2017 first quarter.
During the fiscal 2017 first quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond repurchased $127 million worth of its common stock, representing about 3.3 million shares, under its existing $2.5 billion share repurchase program. At the end of this quarter, the program had a remaining balance of $1.6 billion.
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Bed Bath & Beyond detailed in its earnings release:
Although the first quarter is typically the least impactful quarter in terms of annual sales and earnings, and while the Company continued to have strong growth in its customer-facing-digital channels this quarter, the Company did experience increased softness in transactions in stores, as well as higher net-direct-to-customer shipping expense, coupon expense, and advertising costs during the quarter. It remains to be seen whether these challenges were more pronounced in, or unique to, the first quarter due to the smaller sales base in this period, and/or a later start to the summer selling period.
On the books, Bed Bath & Beyond cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $469.32 million at the end of the quarter, down from $566.8 million in the same period from last year.
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond closed Thursday at $33.73, with a consensus analyst price target of $38.00 and a 52-week range of $33.40 to $48.83. Following the release, the stock was down more than 10% at $30.19 in early trading indications Friday.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
